Electronic cockpit displays (e.g., glass cockpits) have replaced traditional mechanical gauges and utilize computerized or electronic displays to graphically convey information related to various electronic systems associated with the electronic display. Typically, there may be as many as six or more electronic displays in most large aircraft (e.g., commercial or military aircraft), and as many as three or more electronic displays in smaller aircraft (e.g., private aircraft). These display systems are generally expensive to build and install. While these costs may be acceptable for high-end commercial or military deployments, in the case of smaller aircraft, the added cost is often unacceptable and/or impractical. For example, smaller aircraft typically have smaller space available within the cockpit, and therefore result in additional size and/or positioning constraints when trying to accommodate a smaller flight deck. Once the electronic display systems are installed, they are difficult to modify or adjust (e.g., size, shape, positioning). Furthermore, the added costs and difficulties become even greater when retrofitting an aircraft.
Some electronic display systems do not require additional space within a cockpit flight deck. For example, head-up displays are often used to project critical flight data within a pilot's field of vision. These head-up displays are transparent displays that project and/or overlay data (or images) over a real-world environment without obstructing the user's view. In order allow the user to view a projected image (or data), many head-up displays require the user to look through a display element (e.g., a combiner) attached to the airframe or another object in the cockpit. Various head-mounted (or helmet-mounted) head-up display systems have developed that project an image and/or data onto a visor (or lens, or some other transparent panel).
Thus, in most head-up display systems, in addition to requiring some sort of projector device, the displayed image is required to be substantially transparent or otherwise limited in size to allow for overlay. As a result, head-up displays are often complex and costly. Additionally, the size and/or robustness of the projected image is often governed by the size limitations of the display element (e.g., combiner, bezel, visor, lens). Therefore, many of these displays are generally constrained to a limited symbology and limited flight information (e.g., airspeed, altitude), and still require panel mounted displays in the cockpit or flight deck to provide additional flight information (e.g., maps, engine parameters, aircraft monitoring). Thus, while available head-mounted displays may be suitable for replacing displays related to basic flight information, they are inadequate for the purposes of replacing and/or simulating a glass cockpit and many of the traditional panel mounted electronic display systems.